If you manage B2B deals, you know how fast things can go sideways—deals stall, updates get missed, and suddenly your pipeline looks like a graveyard. This guide is for sales managers, reps, and anyone who wants a no-nonsense way to get real visibility using Prosp activity dashboards. No fluff—just what actually works, what to skip, and how to cut through the noise.
Why Bother Tracking Activities, Anyway?
Here’s the ugly truth: most B2B deals die from neglect, not competition. If you can’t see what’s happening (or not happening) with your deals, you’re stuck guessing. Activity dashboards let you spot the gaps—missed calls, overdue emails, or deals that have gone cold—before it’s too late.
Bottom line: If you want fewer surprises and more closed deals, you need to track activity. But not all tracking is worth your time.
Step 1: Set Up Prosp Activity Dashboards the Right Way
Before you start, get clear on what you actually want to track. Prosp dashboards are only as useful as the data you feed them.
Key setup moves:
- Define what counts as “activity.”
- Stick to things that move deals forward: meetings, calls, emails, proposals sent.
- Ignore “busywork” like internal notes or status changes unless they matter to your process.
- Connect your data sources.
- Make sure your email/calendar are synced. If your team is logging things manually, expect gaps.
- Choose the right dashboard view.
- Start simple: activity by deal, by rep, and by week.
- Don’t cram every metric in at once—information overload helps no one.
Pro tip: Ask your team what they actually use, not just what looks good in a sales meeting. If it takes more than a minute to explain, it’s too complicated.
Step 2: Focus on Activities That Correlate With Closing
Not all activities are created equal. The best dashboards help you see which actions actually move deals along.
What to track:
- Customer-facing touches: Calls, meetings, demos, proposals, and follow-ups.
- Deal movement: Stage changes (but only if your stages aren’t just for show).
- Responsiveness: Time between customer contact and your response.
What’s less useful:
- Logging every single email (especially “just checking in” ones).
- Tracking internal chatter—nice for managers, not for closing deals.
How to figure this out:
Look back at your last 10 won deals. What did reps actually do before the deal closed? Build your dashboard around those actions.
Step 3: Use Filters and Segments to Cut Through the Noise
A wall of data isn’t helpful. Prosp lets you filter and segment your dashboard views—use that.
Try these filters:
- Stalled deals: Deals with no activity in X days (whatever “stalled” means for your sales cycle).
- High-touch deals: Opportunities with lots of recent activity but no movement—these often need a different approach.
- Rep focus: Who’s juggling too many deals at once? Who’s got bandwidth?
Don’t bother with:
- Vanity filters (“most emails sent”) that don’t drive outcomes.
- Segments based on arbitrary values—stay focused on deal progress.
Pro tip: Set up a “Deals Needing Attention” view—one click, and you see what’s at risk this week.
Step 4: Make Activity Reviews a Habit, Not a Performance Review
Dashboards are useless if you only check them at the end of the quarter. Build a routine.
Best practices:
- Weekly team check-ins: Use the dashboard to have open, honest conversations about stuck deals. No blame, just facts.
- One-on-ones: Focus on deals with low activity or lots of back-and-forth but no progress.
- Self-serve visibility: Everyone should know how to pull up their own dashboard. If only managers can see it, you’re missing the point.
What to avoid:
- Turning activity metrics into a stick to beat people with—nobody wants to game the system.
- Making it about “who sent the most emails”—quality matters more than quantity.
Step 5: Automate Reminders, But Don’t Overdo It
Prosp can nudge you about stale deals or missing follow-ups. Used right, this keeps things from falling through the cracks.
Use automation for:
- Deal inactivity: Alert when there’s no customer touchpoint in X days.
- Key stage milestones: Remind reps to confirm next steps after demos or proposals.
Skip automation for:
- Every minor action. If you set up too many reminders, people tune them out.
- Internal status changes—focus on customer-facing work.
Pro tip: Review your reminder rules monthly. If you’re ignoring the alerts, so is everyone else.
Step 6: Keep Your Dashboards Clean and Current
Old, cluttered dashboards kill trust. If your dashboard has dead deals, duplicate entries, or outdated owners, people stop using it.
Maintenance moves:
- Regular cleanup: Set a monthly reminder to archive or close out dead deals.
- Ownership checks: Make sure deals are assigned to the right people.
- Field sanity: Keep custom fields and tags to a minimum—only what you use.
What to ignore:
- Over-customizing dashboards for every minor request. You want clarity, not a Franken-dashboard.
What Actually Works (and What Doesn’t)
Here’s the honest take, after seeing plenty of teams drown in dashboards:
Works: - Simple, focused dashboards everyone understands. - Making activity reviews a routine, not a surprise. - Tracking only what matters for moving deals forward.
Doesn’t work: - Micromanaging reps with “activity goals” that reward busywork. - Letting dashboards get cluttered or out-of-date. - Overcomplicating with endless custom fields and filters.
A little tough love: If your team isn’t using the dashboard, it’s probably too complicated or not showing what they care about. Ask for feedback, cut the clutter, and try again.
Keep It Simple. Adjust as You Go.
You won’t get your dashboards perfect on day one, and that’s fine. Start simple. Track a handful of activities that actually matter, review them regularly, and tweak as you learn. The real win is less guesswork and more deals moving forward—not impressing your boss with a wall of charts.
If you keep it honest and practical, your Prosp activity dashboards will actually help you close more deals—and keep your sanity.